Sep 24th 2015, vs Yokohama

The Swallows kept their momentum going and didn’t play down to their opponents as they cruised past the BayStars before an all-important two game set at the Tokyo Dome. All the hallmarks of the Swallows 2015 success were on display including great batting by Kawabata and Yamada, a strong start by Ogawa, and solid bullpen work which was topped off by Tony Barnette’s franchise-record breaking 38th save on the season.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

BayStars

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

5

0

Swallows

2

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

X

4

10

0

W: Ogawa (11-8) L: Ishida (2-5)S: Barnette (38)

BayStars

Swallows

1

Sho Aranami (CF)

1

Takahiro Araki (RF)

2

Kensuke Uchimura (2B)

2

Shingo Kawabata (3B)

3

Takayuki Kajitani (RF)

3

Tetsuto Yamada (2B)

4

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (LF)

4

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B)

5

Jose Lopez (1B)

5

Wladimir Balentien (LF)

6

Toshihiko Kuramoto (SS)

6

Yuhei (Takai) (CF)

7

Shigeo Yanagida (3B)

7

Keiji Ohbiki (SS)

8

HIroki Minei (C)

8

Yuhei Nakamura (C)

9

Kenta Ishida (P)

9

Yasuhiro Ogawa (P)

The Swallows started out fast with a one out Kawabata single followed by a Yamada homer just fair and over the fence in the first inning. 2-0 Swallows

The BayStars got one back on Ogawa after a lead off single in the second came around to score two outs later on a Yanagida single. 2-1 Swallows

Yamada lead off the bottom of the third with yet another homer to extend the lead further. 3-1 Swallows

Unfortunately Kajitani followed Yamada’s lead and lead off the top of the fourth with a monster solo shot. 3-2 Swallows

The Swallows got the run back after Kawabata punished a pair of Ishida walks for a run. 4-2 Swallows

Ogawa pitched 6 innings on 88 pitches including 8 swinging strikeouts before he gave way to the bullpen relay of Akiyoshi (0.2 IP), Kyuko (1.0 IP), Ondrusek (0.1 IP), and Barnette (1.0 IP). Tony ended the night on just nine pitches culminating with a swinging strikeout for his 38th save of the season. 4-2 Swallows FINAL

The win put the Swallows magic number at 5 as the Giants won earlier in the night. The Birds will head up the Sobu line to face the Giants on Saturday and Sunday. The Swallows have gone a mere 2-6 at the Tokyo Dome this season. The Giants have kept pace with the Swallows four game win streak, and the Tokyo Dome series will go a long way in deciding the CL.

Game Notes

Tony Barnette’s 38th save in a season surpassed the previous franchise record of 37 held by Shingo Takatsu, Ryota Igarashi, and Hirotoshi Ishii all Swallows greats.

Tetsuto Yamada’s 36 homers for the season surpasses Takahiro Ikeyama’s club record of 34 homers by a Japanese right-hander.

Ogawa was most likely pulled early from the game to pitch him on short rest on Tuesday at Jingu.

This game shut the book on the Swallows-BayStars matchup for the season. The Swallows dominated the BayStars for a 17-8 record.

Oh, by the way, Tsubakuro would like you to know that Ogawa has a book out.

Spread the Word!

Kozo Ota is a third-generation Swallows fan that grew up on Montreal Expos baseball. (You can read more about that here.) When he’s not at Jingu, he works as a freelance translator/interpreter to make enough money to go to Jingu. You can find random posts by Kozo on Google+ and Twitter.

Tony Jiang

wow the swallows are sure flying high….. would have though them making the playoffs as likely as the jays this year